Summary of April 23 meeting

We met on Tuesday April 23 at Nancy's place.  The main discussion centered around travel, and how it affects others and the environment.  Some of the questions that were raised were: How do we minimize the carbon footprint of our travels?  When travelling to other countries, especially developing countries, how does tourism affect the local people?  What about volunteer tourism - how does this affect local jobs and economies?  And other important questions. 

We talked about some personal travel experiences, and how they affected us.  We talked about purchasing carbon offsets (a type of credit for greenhouse gas reduction) as a way of compensating for the carbon footprint of our travels (see the David Suzuki Foundation website for more information).  Or starting a voluntary 'gas tax' as a group, which would be pooled together to contribute to an environmental cause.  We talked about how travelling can teach us about how our decisions affect others around the world, both positively and negatively. 

Thank you Nancy for hosting, and for leading the discussion.  Looking forward to the next meeting on Sunday May 12 (note the time change to 5 pm). 

- Submitted by Amanda